Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel is preparing to withdraw from UNESCO, hours after the US made a similar announcement.
Netanyahu is said to have called the US decision to leave UNESCO "courageous and moral" and added in a statement that he had instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to begin preparations for Israel to leave the UN cultural and educational agency.
The US has made the decision to withdraw from UNESCO due to the body's "anti-Israeli views", reports AFP. UNESCO officials regretted the decision.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dani Danon, said earlier today that the US decision to withdraw from UNESCO represents "the price to be paid for discrimination against Israel", while the chairman of the upper house of the Russian parliament, Konstantin Kosachev, believes that such a move befits a "renegade state".
AFP reports that Danon said in a statement that Washington's decision marks a "new era" at the UN, after the State Department stated that the decision was partly caused by "persistent bias in UNESCO directed against Israel."
The agency reminds that Washington opposes any move by the UN body towards the recognition of Palestine as a state, as it believes that a peace agreement must be reached in the Middle East first.
TAS reports that the chairman of the Russian Federation Council, Kosachev, reacting to the move by the US, assessed that "in a series of decisions about abandoning one's own international obligations, this move seems particularly shameful".
"He would be more suited to a renegade state, and not a responsible global power, as the USA constantly presents itself. This decision will not bring good for the USA, and Washington has seriously damaged its own claim to global moral leadership," Kosachev wrote on Facebook.
Referring to unnamed American officials, AP states that the administration of US President Donald Trump has been preparing for months for the possibility of leaving UNESCO, which Washington officially announced today, and adds that this is not the first such decision by the US.
The agency claims that this decision was expected to be announced by the end of this year, and that several diplomats who were appointed to positions in the US mission to UNESCO this summer were told that everything was on hold and advised to look for other jobs.
The Trump administration's budget proposal for the next fiscal year, according to AP, did not include an item that foresees the possibility of lifting restrictions on UNESCO funding that Washington had previously introduced.
He also states that the lack of personnel in the mission and plans for financing UNESCO were followed by constant accusations against this UN agency that came from high-ranking American officials, including US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.
In the agency's report, it is recalled that the USA withdrew from UNESCO in the 20s, and in addition to bad management, political reasons were cited, and then it returned to membership in 2003.
This agency reports that the US State Department announced that the US is withdrawing from UNESCO as of December 31, 2018, while previously the Reuters news only stated that the decision "comes into effect on December 31."
"The decision was not easy to make and it reflects the US's concern about the increasing outstanding obligations in UNESCO, the need to reform from the foundations of this organization and the constant bias in UNESCO directed against Israel", stated the State Department.
The announcement also states that the US will strive to "continue to be engaged... as a non-member country with observer status in order to contribute American views, perspectives and expertise."
On behalf of UNESCO, the general director of that organization, Irina Bokova, responded to Washington's move.
"After receiving the official notification from the US Secretary of State Rex Tilesron, as Director General of UNESCO I want to express my deep regret for the decision of the US to withdraw from UNESCO," said Bokova.
She added that the US decision represents "a loss for multilateralism and the entire UN family".
Reuters reminds us that the US significantly reduced budgetary contributions to UNESCO in 2011 in protest over the decision to grant full membership to the Palestinians.
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